Madison-based energy technology firm Virent Inc. has been awarded up to $4million for a research project aimed at bringing down the cost of making biofuels from plants that aren't eaten.

The project was one of four that received funding totaling $13million Monday from the U.S. Energy Department on Monday. Virent and the other companies awarded funding must still negotiate final contracts with the government.

The Energy Department said it awarded funding for research projects that aim "to bring next generation biofuels on line faster and drive down the cost of producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuels from biomass."

Virent co-founder and chief technical officer Randy Cortright said the project is part of the effort to move the biofuels industry beyond "the whole food vs. fuel issue. The real driver is, can we utilize nonfood biomass as feedstock," he said.

Working with Idaho National Laboratory, Virent will aim to use a separation process involving heat, known as fractionation, to take corn stover and loblolly pine with the bark removed, and strip it down to the hydrocarbons that can then be converted into fuel, Cortright said.

Virent has a small biorefinery in Madison that is capable of taking sugars from sugarcane and other plants and converting them through a chemical process into renewable jet fuel and diesel, as well as renewable chemicals.

The new funding, for a three-year research project, will help Virent conduct more research and aim to make the technology productive on a pilot scale. "If we can make it work we think it can be a big upgrade over some of the existing technologies for doing biomass deconstruction," said Cortright.

The Energy Department said the projects are part of the administration's efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The transportation sector accounts for one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.